Donald Trump would have hoped for better when he visited Beijing on 13-15 May, but the trip, instead of becoming a feather in his deal-making cap, revealed a glaring strategic asymmetry.

The White House had originally imagined a summit with ambitious outcomes across trade, security and technology. But the ongoing war with Iran altered both the timing of the summit and the substance of the meeting.

Trump, who went with a high-level delegation including top business honchos — Elon Musk (Tesla), Tim Cook (Apple) and Jensen Huang (Nvidia) — arrived in Beijing as a leader constrained by geopolitical overreach, domestic political pressures and a growing need for Chinese cooperation.

The summit yielded no dramatic breakthrough he might have hoped for, and instead revealed something more consequential: a public acknowledgment that the US, under Trump, has little appetite for open confrontation with China. This should deeply unsettle Narendra Modi’s foreign policy establishment in New Delhi.

For more than a decade, Modi’s foreign policy has rested on a foundational assumption: that the US will see India as a strategic counterweight to China and demonstrate this outlook in its policy choices. This assumption shaped India’s diplomatic posture, regional alignments and military cooperation agreements. But the Trump-Xi summit has demonstrated that this assumption is shakier than Modi’s government is willing to admit.

Trump went to Beijing hoping that Xi might use China’s leverage with Tehran to help deliver a diplomatic outcome in the Iran conflict, especially around reopening the Strait of Hormuz and stabilising energy markets. China offered rhetorical support for stability but no meaningful commitment. Beijing was not going to rescue Washington from a crisis of its own making.

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Despite receiving little support on Iran, Trump was strikingly deferential to Xi. The symbolism was hard........

© National Herald